NEW YORK — After a year in the storm following the departure of its chief historian Jeff Zucker and the formation of a new company, Warner Bros. Discovery, aimed at putting the progressive channel more at the center, CNN is now experiencing the chaotic moment of layoff a CEO, Chris Licht, who just two days ago promised “I will do everything I can to regain the trust of my employees” and whose trust was reaffirmed by Discovery boss David Zaslav.
But it was Zaslav himself who appeared at the editorial meeting of the world-famous TV channel this morning: “I want you to be the first to know.” And to learn from me: I met Licht, and he is leaving CNN. I wish him a wonderful career: he put all his heart into us, but for various reasons it didn’t work out. In the end, it’s up to me to decide: I take full responsibility for what happened and wish him the best of luck.”
The company boss added that the search for a new head of CNN could take months. In the meantime, the network will be run by a pool of managers coordinated by David Leavy, who was appointed general manager just days ago to keep the group in order. Leavy was scheduled to begin duty on June 20, but the rush of events forced him to disembark immediately.
In the last few days, among the first twenty that seemed to herald an approaching tornado, we wrote that the Americans are returning from the imaginary but not too fictional series “Succession” – with the exciting power struggles of the Murdoch dynasty, which among other things Possessions are , Fox, the bullhorn TV network of the Conservatives and Trumpism – witnessed another editorial drama: the fate of Fox’s biggest rival, CNN.
A year ago, after changing ownership, the network, which shared America’s progressive audience with MSNBC, began a course correction in Licht’s belief that more “centric” information would help CNN capture new market share. It didn’t turn out that way: in recent months, the channel’s viewership has seen a significant drop (-30% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of 2020 when Trump was still in the White House), while profits fell by one billion and 250 million in 2021 to 750 million in 2022.
But more than the results, Licht’s fate sealed a series of blunders that caused him to lose the trust of the entire editorial board: from the controversial encounter with Donald Trump to a town hall meeting organized with a Trump audience who loved the The former President repeated this repeatedly, refusing the interviewer’s legitimate questions, to the point of deciding to open the doors to journalist Tim Alberta of The Atlantic magazine, who followed him everywhere for months soliciting all his confidential information.
Compared to “Succession,” Cnn’s Shakespearean drama has one fundamental difference: dynasties slow things down, and nobody leaves the scene for good because of family ties and ownership. However, when everything is entrusted to managers, changes can be more sudden and final.
In the case of CNN, which has been in crisis for some time, the drama was consumed in a breathtaking sequence that lasted just six days: Last Friday, Atlantic published the gigantic (15,000 words) article, which portrayed Alberta in the unforgiving portrait one draws vulgar, superficial, unpredictable in strategic decisions, unable to foresee the harmful effects of its moves. And who doesn’t shy away from harsh judgments on the group’s journalists while judging as wrong the line the channel has taken during the pandemic. On Sunday, Jeff Zucker, who was fired in February 2022 because of a romantic relationship with another CNN executive (consensual relationship but against company rules), gave a speech to recent Yale graduates: He claims he was kicked out on a pretext when he leaked the report (“I gave them a gun and they shot me”) and sharply criticizes the Licht executive board.
On Monday, Zaslav, a former friend of Zucker, reiterated his faith in Licht, while those close to him invited the former boss (who remains in touch with the CNN reporters he headed for ten years) to calm his mind and stop fanning the fire. At the same time, Licht, covered with ashes, appears in front of the editorial office. He apologizes for criticizing the journalists who have ended up at Atlantic and promises to regain their trust, beginning with the decision to move his office back to the middle of the editorial board after spending a year in isolation on CNN’s 19th floor had been skyscrapers in Hudson Yards.
He didn’t have time to move the desk.